Challenge Responses
by suezahn
Summary: A collection of drabbles to various challenges. These may someday spawn longer pieces, but take them for what they are. I am curious what you think of them, though. Any feedback is welcome.
1. Winter

The room was small, cozy; the walls were draped in fine tapestries of rich, warm colors, depicting scenes of romance and daily life on this remote planet. The heady aroma of incense, wood smoke and something delicious hung in the heavy air, a promise of a feast to come. Despite the blizzard outside, the atmosphere inside was comforting, safe.

Deceptive.

Leia felt a pang of longing; this place reminded her of a winter palace now long gone. But now was not the time. She peered out the tiny window, peeling off her gloves. Han was supposed to be here already.


	2. Whisper

"Don't move."

The words were little more than a whisper, a caress against the back of Solo's neck. He knew that no-nonsense voice. It was the sort of command a man of his experience didn't ignore. He didn't move.

Han felt a hand graze the back of his thigh before it unsnapped the leather tie-down of his custom quick-draw holster.

"I didn't hear you come in," he muttered, eyes remaining locked on the ragged cityscape of Coronet spread out before him. The window was set at the wrong opaqueness to offer a reflection. His hands itched to move, but common sense kept them still, lifted out a little at his sides.

"You weren't supposed to."

Hands snaked around his waist to efficiently unlatch the buckle, and the familiar weight of his blaster and holster rig were abruptly gone. He felt almost naked. The rush of adrenaline made his heart trip into a higher gear.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" He heard a soft thump of what he assumed was his weapon dropping onto the plush rug somewhere behind them.

"Oh, I'm quite sure. I've waited a long time for this, Solo."

"What about—?"

"No more talking."


	3. Expectations

**Expectations**

by Susan Zahn

_This was written for an assignment in a creative writing class in college back in 1990. The challenge was to write a complete story (intro, climax, anticlimax, etc.) in exactly 100 words. I based this on a movie still from the Harrison Ford film, _The Frisco Kid.

Out of the east he came riding, his bay mare kicking up dust in the setting sun. Even from a distance I could tell by the dirty white ten-gallon, scruffy beard, and mismatched clothes that he was a desperate man. The stranger neared and I saw the scowl on his weathered face, and the gleam of wary eyes. Then with a shock I spotted the six-shooter at his waist, and my spine chilled. This was no ordinary plains drifter, but an outlaw! The saddlebags seemed to hang heavier as he approached...and passed, disappearing behind the dust.


	4. Survivor

Sometimes you wake up in the morning with an idea in your head, and you just have to write it NOW. I did this morning, and this is the 100-word drabble that came out...

* * *

They were all gone now; the dashing rogue, the brave knight, the friends and comrades. But she was a survivor, always had been.

Leia sat in warm Corellian sunlight, looking out at the peaceful grounds of her home. The sounds of family drifted out through the open balcony doors behind, the comforting buzz of voices and laughter a steady reminder of everything gained over the years despite relentless losses.

With a wistful smile, she looked down, then raised the stylus to datapad in hand and began.

_They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes._


	5. WTF

This is in response to the latest a href="/node/3"WriterCon/a 100-word challenge, the prompt being the word "twin."

* * *

Her brother?

Han stared unseeing into the bonfire, listening as Luke and Leia's story unfolded, what they knew of it.

Separated at birth, progeny of a mad man, inheritors of a talent he still wasn't sure he believed in. It tested the limits of credibility.

"Han?" she asked, her dulcet voice tentative, betraying fear of his reaction.

He glanced from dark brown to sky-blue eyes, from chestnut brown to blond hair. He thought of her acerbic wit versus Luke's tendency toward being too literal. And what about that kiss?

Han smirked. "You two are the worst twins I've ever met."


	6. Falling

The 100-word challenge was to use the word "fall."

***************************

She was beautiful; the sort of beauty that made his heart stop, then race to catch up. And she loved him—she'd said so. In that instant all the regrets, everything he'd wanted to but never said, seemed a little easier to bear. Her courage left him in awe once again.

Han felt the platform begin to fall away beneath his feet, the swirling cold already beginning to wrap around his booted ankles, pulling him down with an icy grip.

He found it wasn't so bad, knowing she would be the last thing he saw. He could live with that.


End file.
